Moldovans Spend Over 1 Billion Lei on Google and Meta Services

Moldovans spent over 1 billion lei on advertising and subscriptions on Google and Meta

Since the start of the year, Moldovan residents have spent over 1 billion lei on services provided by international online platforms, including Meta, Google and YouTube. Meanwhile, foreign companies have paid over 311 million lei in VAT to the state budget.

Victoria Belous

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Finance Minister Victoria Belous told TV8 this, noting that the figure of over 1 billion lei relates solely to purchases made by individuals. This includes expenditure on online advertising, content promotion, targeted adverts, subscriptions and other paid digital services. When purchases by Moldovan companies are taken into account, the total expenditure is even higher.

International platforms are registered with the State Tax Service as VAT payers. When individuals purchase services, the tax is paid directly by the foreign companies themselves. However, if advertising or other digital services are commissioned by Moldovan businesses, the obligation to declare and pay VAT lies with them.

According to the source, one of the largest platforms has paid over 81 million lei in VAT to the state budget. According to Belous’s estimates, individuals purchased services from it worth more than 400 million lei. However, the minister did not specify which company had paid this amount. The smallest payments made by individual platforms amounted to just a few hundred lei.

It was emphasised that foreign digital platforms are not required to open offices in Moldova in order to pay taxes here. They may operate remotely, but must register with the tax authority and pay VAT on services sold to individuals in the country. The tax rate is 20 per cent. If the purchaser is a Moldovan company, it declares and pays the VAT itself.

The minister explained that the tax authority does not have a separate public breakdown of revenue for each company: the overall statistics include not only advertising expenditure but also payments for IT services. It is therefore impossible to determine, based on the data provided, exactly how much Meta, Google or YouTube received from Moldovan users.

This story was translated with the assistance of artificial intelligence.

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